With the huge surge in the exchange rate of the dollar against the Lebanese pound, we can say that the minimum wage is now equal to $27. In a simple mathematics equation, it can be said that the average citizen’s salary is not enough for him to fill a can of fuel and buy a bottle of cooking gas and some foodstuff to feed his children.

According to the World Bank’s norms, extreme poverty is spending two dollars per day, but Lebanese who are receiving the minimum wage today live far below the level of extreme poverty.

The majority of Lebanese have been left to their dark fate recently amid the complete absence of the state, which is rather exacerbating the crisis and failing to solve it, starting with the random lifting of subsidies, passing through the deliberate manipulation of the dollar exchange rate, ending with smuggling and sanctions.

As for the ration card, It is nothing but a falsehood that Mikati’s government have inherited it from the Hassan Diab’s government, in a continuous effort to numb citizens for the longest possible period. The Ministry of Social Affairs, according to Minister Hector Hajjar, is administratively and technically ready, but it is waiting for the government to secure ways to finance it.

Today, poor people are standing amid a great deficit, so there is no solution left but to call for participating in a day of anger and a general strike tomorrow, Monday, by taking to the roads in protest against the deteriorating economic and living conditions. Perhaps it will be a citizen’s cry that shakes dead consciences, if it exists.